ORANGE COUNTY, California — Four Republican candidates seeking to unseat Gov. Gavin Newsom met for a debate Wednesday night and discussed explosive topics, including critical race theory, mask mandates, and government overreach.
For the most part, the group avoided criticizing each other but rather saved their disdain for Newsom, who was accused of failing Californians on numerous issues, such as high crime and the handling of the pandemic.
Ballots will be mailed to voters in the next few weeks, and the recall election is Sept. 14.
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California Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, former House member Doug Ose, Newsom’s 2018 election opponent John Cox, and former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer answered questions for 90 minutes at the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California.
The moderators were conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt, former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, and two Fox Los Angeles reporters.
Three others were invited but did not attend: candidates Larry Elder, a talk show host; reality star Caitlyn Jenner; and Newsom.
The questions were geared toward the Republican platform of combating big government, low taxes, and personal freedom. Both Kiley and Ose said excessive government intrusion into personal lives was the most pressing problem, while Faulconer and Cox said it was an unaffordable standard of living.
“Our state government is fundamentally broken. We have a political class that serves special interests instead of voters,” said Kiley, who has been in the California State Legislature for five years, where Democrats have a supermajority.
“I think the government is engaged in significant overreach,” Ose said, referring to pandemic policies such as the lockdowns and the mask mandates. “This is not the last variant we are going to have. If we don’t break this pattern of government overreach, we are going to have this over and over and over again. Let’s have some faith in people.”
Kiley chimed in regarding California’s position of being dead last in initial vaccine rollouts because Newsom didn’t trust the vaccine that Trump had created.
“He refused [to accept it] and wanted to do it on his own, and he blew it,” Kiley said.
Several questions were asked involving crime and illegal immigration.
“Every California family deserves to be safe and have a safe neighborhood,” Faulconer said of the free-for-all looting and street violence in the San Francisco area. “We don’t have a governor who seems to think it’s a problem and [he] comes out with a defunding the police movement. He’s wrong, Californians know he’s wrong, and that’s why he is going to be recalled.”
Cox spoke about people leaving California in droves because of excessive regulation and taxation that make owning businesses and homeownership difficult.
“Government is not the solution to a problem. Government is a problem,” Cox said. “We have elected celebrities, politicians, and career insiders for too long.”
He criticized the government for collecting billions in tax dollars devoted to the homelessness problem without any measurable success, along with the construction of a bullet train to nowhere that “three people are going to ride.”
All the candidates passionately opposed critical race theory, which is being taught in government agencies and schools throughout California. They noted that Newsom appoints many of the officials who are meting out these mandates.
The Recall Newsom campaign started last year and gained momentum as angry business owners and residents saw no end to the COVID-19 lockdown that crippled the state. Although the recall has been labeled by Newsom as a Republican effort, organizers have said they have received support from a large number of Democrats and independents.
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The recall campaign needed 1.5 million valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. Organizers turned in 2.1 million signatures, of which 1.7 were certified by the California secretary of state.
A recent poll shows about 50% of voters support the recall. If Newsom receives more than 50% “no” votes, then the candidate with the highest tally wins.
